Premier Christy Clark says she won’t wait until after the election to disclose her party’s position on forestry issues.Photo by
Jenelle Schneider Jenelle Schneider

VICTORIA — On the eve of Premier Christy Clark’s Friday address to the annual convention of the Truck Loggers Association, the New Democrats provided the Liberals with an irresistible opening for attack.

Opposition critic Norm Macdonald was reacting to a government move to placate TLA concerns by increasing the amount of timber available for harvesting, offset by a 20-per-cent hike in fees to discourage log exports.

“A bad move,” declared Macdonald, predicting that despite the supposed disincentive, the changes “will in fact make it easier to export raw logs.”

Which led to the inevitable question in an election year — what would his party do about raw log exports? Regulatory restrictions? Still higher fees as a disincentive? Or, as party rhetoric sometime hints, an outright ban?

“The sensible thing to do is — we know we have tools that can move to greater utilization of raw logs, “ replied Macdonald in answer to the question from CKNW reporter Sean Leslie.

“What we’ve said in meeting after meeting with businesses that are involved with raw log exports is that once we have a mandate from the people of the province, we’ll sit down and we’ll look at the tools that work to keep people working and harvesting.”

Once we have a mandate from the people? That didn’t square with what party leader Adrian Dix has been saying about the NDP laying out its program before the election, in a fully detailed, fully costed election platform. Only then will the party have a mandate to do anything, to hear Dix tell it.

The Liberals were not long in pouncing. “NDP’s new log export position,” trumpeted the Friday morning press release from the Liberal caucus office. “It’s a secret.”

The premier herself picked up on the theme in her mid-day address to the truck loggers. “There are a lot of people out there who won’t tell you what they stand for,” said Clark. “There are those who will say they have policies on forestry, they have policies on log exports and they are not going to tell you what those are until after the election.”

She then springboarded to a statement of her own beliefs in a private sector that grows faster than the public sector, in lower taxes and balancing the budget, and in the need for a thriving resource-based economy.

“So if you want to know where I stand on forestry, ask me today and I’ll tell you,” she declared. “I’m not going to wait until after the election and surprise you with this.”

She was obviously thinking of the NDP. But it’s also worth recalling that she became leader and premier only after her predecessor’s decision to surprise the electorate with the harmonized sales tax, just 10 weeks after an election in which it was barely mentioned and then only as something that was not on the radar screen.

The tell-us-where-you-stand riff provided Clark with a strong finish to a speech that was otherwise not going to generate a lot of coverage. The main news, important to TLA members, is that the government will provide additional protection and compensation for logging contractors who’ve not been paid for work they’ve performed for insolvent holders of timber cutting rights.

Clark’s move to challenge the New Democrats on what they would do to curb log exports was a reminder that with the election approaching, the political debate will focus not just on what the Liberals have and have not done, but NDP intentions as well.

In reply, the New Democrats make no apologies for planning to work with the companies that export logs to craft a program to increase utilization of wood here in B.C.

“It’s a complicated issue and these businesses know the issue very well “ as Macdonald told reporter Leslie.

“So let’s have a discussion on what are the best ways to meet our goals and at the same time protect harvesting jobs that we want to protect too. It’s not a matter of any one particular strategy. But a government that is committed to greater utilization is a government that will get the outcomes that are needed.”

OK, he and his colleagues would consult the players in the export trade before acting. But would he at least concede that log exports would decline if the NDP forms the next government?

“Absolutely, there would be greater utilization here in the province,” he replied. “There’s no question. Adrian Dix has been clear that that is going to be a priority for his forest minister. “

The work would be done to redirect wood from the export market to mills here in B.C. The tools, be they incentives or disincentives, regulations or sweet-talk, already exist. “We know that we can do it,” continued the NDP forest critic. “But the most sensible approach is to work and partner with businesses who will recognize this is public land and when a government receives a mandate they have an obligation to follow through on that.”

So to recap, the tools would be applied after an election, once the government receives a mandate from the voters, presumably one embodied in a platform pledge to reduce log exports.

Specifics? Well, I guess we’ll have to wait for the platform. It’s due sometime in March or early April, looming large as one of the most anticipated events of the campaign season.

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